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No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.

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A visitor from interstellar space has likely been spotted in our solar system for the first time ever.
The object, known as A/2017 U1, was detected last week by researchers using the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawaii.
"We have been waiting for this day for decades," Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. [Solar System Explained from the Inside Out (Infographic)]

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.

"War of the Worlds" opening lines written by H.G.Wells a long time ago.
Also used in Jeff Wayne's classic "Forever Autumn" album a couple of decades ago.

I guess what Trump was going to tweet next was much more important as far as our quest for understanding how the universe works is concerned...

__________________All I'm really asking for here is a knife that will not jam and a unicorn that doesn't need sharpening. Will_PowerIt's been my experience that all you really need to harvest a deer is a car. They come right through the windshield just fine.357rossThat poop is priceless.MFC

Astronomers are still debating the origins of the first confirmed interstellar object to pass through our solar system, now known as 1I/2017 U1 (`Oumuamua). But an international observing team of professional astronomers says that this highly-elongated, 400-meter long asteroid may well have been wandering through the galaxy unattached to any star system for hundreds of millions of years. That is, long before its wholly unexpected encounter with our own solar system.
This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid: `Oumuamua. This unique object was discovered on 19 October 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawai`i. Subsequent observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world show that it was travelling through space for millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system. `Oumuamua seems to be a dark red highly-elongated metallic or rocky object, about 400 metres long, and is unlike anything normally found in the Solar System.

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Discovered only a month ago by astronomers using the Pan-STARRs1 telescope in Hawaii, an international team led by astronomer Karen Meech has made detailed measurements of its properties. “This thing is very strange, with a complex, convoluted shape,” Meech, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, said in a statement.

Its name comes from a Hawaiian term for messenger or scout. Indeed, it is the first space rock to have been identified as forming around another star. Since asteroids coalesce during the process of planet formation, this object can tell us something about the formation of planets around its unknown parent star.

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It is thought to be an extremely dark object, absorbing 96% of the light that falls on its surface, and it is red. This colour is the hallmark of organic (carbon-based) molecules. Organic molecules are the building blocks of the biological molecules that allow life to function.
It is widely thought that the delivery of organic molecules to the early Earth by the collision of comets and asteroids made life here possible. ’Oumuamua shows that the same could be possible in other solar systems.

Catch me if you can
To find out, Ars turned to the Advance Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The office's manager, Mark Rogers, spoke to Ars, as did one of his mission planners, Larry Kos. It turns out they were curious, too, and had done some preliminary calculations on the possibility of intercepting 'Oumuamua.
The short answer is, unfortunately, we are too late now with our existing technology. Although 'Oumuamua is moving at a velocity of 26km/s, factoring in Earth's velocity vector, the delta-v between a spacecraft in Earth orbit and the object is closer to 60km/s. "Chemical propulsion just doesn’t close the case in this scenario," Rogers said. "It’s not feasible."
But what if NASA had worked feverishly after detection of the object on October 19 and already sent a probe into space? The problem with our primary propulsion methods is that, while chemical rockets are very good at getting stuff out of Earth's orbit, they're gas guzzlers in space. Most of our existing in-space propulsion systems are based on chemicals, and they need a lot of fuel—often hydrogen—to move a spacecraft about. In this case, Kos calculated the specific impulse needed to catch 'Oumuamua at about 450 seconds.

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Another option, if we'd been able to see 'Oumuamua sooner, would have been to fly a spacecraft out to the closest intercept point, about 60 times the distance between the Earth and Moon. Unfortunately, 'Oumuamua was not found until five days after this closest flyby. Because of the object's hyperbolic orbit, it did not move much crosswise relative to the stellar background as it made its closest approach to the Sun on September 9 and then moved toward Earth.

Why the artist rendition at wikipedia makes reminds me of the Rama spacecraft, the evil spacecrafts from Riddick, or a space dildo?

__________________All I'm really asking for here is a knife that will not jam and a unicorn that doesn't need sharpening. Will_PowerIt's been my experience that all you really need to harvest a deer is a car. They come right through the windshield just fine.357rossThat poop is priceless.MFC

Astronomers are set to scan an 'alien' comet for signs of extraterrestrial technology.
The cigar-shaped asteroid, named 'Oumuamua by its discoverers, sailed past Earth last month and is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system.
A team of alien-hunting scientists, led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, will scan the comet this week before it sails beyond the reach of Earth's telescopes.
They say they are looking for radio signals, claiming the mysterious visitor could be an alien spaceship.

Wayne redid the album recently with Liam Neeson doing the narration that Burton did in the original. Some interesting small tweaks done and a little better mastering. Definitely worth having both. Wayne also did a live "Broadway" type tour of the new version in the UK.

But, the name of both albums is "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds " "Forever Autumn" is the name of the very pretty track sung by Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. The track sure sounds like the Moodies, but only Hayward is credited.

__________________
"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools" Herbert Spenser

“I respect the government only in the sense that I respect any other dangerous predator who views me as food.”

“The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.” Robert E. Lee

Updated | Astronomers scanning interstellar asteroid Oumuamua for signs of alien communication have so far come back empty-handed. But that doesn’t mean there’s no chance of the asteroid, or any other such visitor in the future, having something a little alien about it.
Panspermia, an intriguing theory on the origins of life on Earth, holds that terrestrial life was born not on our planet but elsewhere in the universe, hitching a ride from another planet on a meteorite or comet. Or interstellar asteroid. Could Ouamuamua present an opportunity to test this theory?
Scientists already know that tiny, hardy life can survive the harsh conditions of space. In 2007, an experiment sent microscopic organisms called tardigrades (nicknamed water bears or moss piglets) into low-Earth orbit with no protection. “They can serve as tiny astronauts,” Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University, told Newsweek. One project wants to send tardigrades or similarly hardy critters out into interstellar space, a harsher environment than low-Earth orbit, at a quarter of the speed of light.

Although it looks like an asteroid, the first interstellar object spotted passing through the solar system, called 'Oumuamua, may be more like a comet in disguise.
When astronomers first spotted the oblong, tumbling interstellar object 'Oumuamua passing through the solar system in October, they were surprised — not only did it come from outside the solar system, according to its trajectory, it seemed to be an asteroid, rather than the comet researchers thought was more likely for an interstellar visitor.

“It was immediately apparent that something had fallen from the sky,” said Ron DiIulio, an astronomer at the University of North Texas.
DiIulio said the noise was from a sonic boom caused by either a meteorite or some sort of space debris.
“As it’s coming in, it explodes. But as it’s exploding it’s also passing the speed of sound. So that’s what we’re get as it comes in,” said DiIulio.
He said hundreds of tons of meteorites fall every day.
DiIulio said most burn up quickly or are rarely caught on camera.
From what he saw captured in the video, DiIulio estimates whatever entered the Earth’s atmosphere was about the size of a grapefruit.

DETROIT (AP) — Experts say a bright light and what sounded like thunder in the sky above Michigan was a meteor.
The American Meteor Society says it received hundreds of reports of a fireball Tuesday night over the state, including many in the Detroit area. Reports also came in from several other states and Ontario, Canada.
Some Michigan residents reported their homes shaking.